Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina volleyball finishes the 2024 regular season with a pair of home matches beginning on Thursday night when mountain-rival ETSU comes to town as part of the "Beat the Bucs" Blackout. WCU's regular season wraps up on Friday with the Senior Night match against Chattanooga. Both matches are set for first serve at 6 p.m. from Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center.

Prior to the opening serve on Friday, WCU will honor its three seniors – Ollie Henderson, Bailey Hartsough, and Sarah Janourova – for their accomplishments and contributions to the program. Both matches against the Bucs and Mocs will be shown on ESPN+ (paid subscription required), with live stats available online through a link at CatamountSports.com.
 
Admission to Catamount volleyball on Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center is free all season long courtesy of First Bank.

MATCHUP: ETSU (16-10, 8-6 SoCon) vs Western Carolina (8-18, 2-11 SoCon)
Date: Thursday, Nov. 14
Time: 6 p.m.
Site: Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center (Cullowhee, N.C.)
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Live Video: ESPN+
Twitter: @CatamountVB

MATCHUP: Chattanooga (16-13, 6-8 SoCon) vs Western Carolina
Date: Friday, Nov. 15
Time: 6 p.m.
Site: Ingles Court at the Ramsey Center (Cullowhee, N.C.)
Live Stats: Sidearm Stats
Live Video: ESPN+
Twitter: @CatamountVB

Back to Serve:
Western Carolina looks to build off a straight-set victory on Saturday night over UNCG that closed the regular-season road slate.
 
Junior Ali Morris led the Catamount offensive attack with 39 kills over three matches including a pair of double-doubles against Wofford (12 Kills, 11 Digs) and UNCG (17 Kills, 19 Digs) last week. Sophomore Zoe Zudans finished the week with 23 kills including 10 in the win over UNCG. Classmate Katie Boney led WCU in the assist column with 78 helpers and 24 digs defensively, picking up a double-double against the Terriers. Sophomore libero Eda Yalçinkaya led the defensive end with 43 digs combined.

Western Carolina still sits among the SoCon leaders on the defensive end, averaging 2.31 blocks per set to rank second in the league. Janelle Blue begins the weekend ranked second in the league with 103 total blocks, averaging 1.13 per set to also ranks second in the SoCon. Sophomore Logan Carr sits in a tie for sixth in the league and second on the team with 75 blocks. Junior Samantha Jo Mikosky checks into the weekend with 72 stops for third-best on the team averaging just under a block per set.

Adding to the Catamount defense, the squad has also been strong along the back line with 1,627 digs – fourth in the SoCon while averaging 17.68 digs per set to rank third in the league and amongst the top 10 in the national leaders. Yalcinkaya leads WCU with 355 digs, averaging 3.86 per set. She's joined in triple digits by Morris at 328 digs, followed by Hartsough (251), while Janourova and Boney have both eclipsed the 100 dig plateau from their setter position at 226 and 174, respectively.

In SoCon play,  Morris ranks seventh in the league with 162 kills as she's eclipsed double-digit kills 10 times including eight straight matches. Boney leads WCU in the assist column with 291 to rank eighth in conference play. Blue begins the final weekend sixth in SoCon play with 40 rejections.

Last Time We Met – Chattanooga 3, Western Carolina 0 RECAP
Western Carolina seniors Bailey Hartsough and Sarah Janourova both eclipsed career milestones in the first meeting as the Catamounts opened a two-match swing through the Volunteer State by falling to Chattanooga in straight sets at Maclellan Gym.
 
Hartsough posted nine digs to surpass the 1,000 career dig plateau in the Scenic City, becoming just the 13th Catamount in program history to reach 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in a career. Her counterpart Janourova dished out 17 assists to become just the 11th Catamount in program history to eclipse 2,000 career assists. She is the first to hit the 2K milestone since Hannah Price who closed her career with 2,324 helpers between 2017-20. 

Hartsough just missed a double-double in leading the Catamounts on Friday as she added 10 kills and a pair of service aces to her nine digs. With her 10 kills, Hartsough passed Ramsey Herron (1,040, 1996-99) for 14th in the program's career record book for kills now with 1,046. Sophomore Logan Carr finished with eight kills and four digs and junior Ali Morris tallied seven kills and 11 digs.

Last Time We Met – ETSU 3, Western Carolina 0 RECAP
Senior Sarah Janourova handed out a team-high 25 assists and a team-leading 14 digs, but Western Carolina volleyball came out on the wrong end of a straight-set defeat against East Tennessee State at Brooks Gymnasium.  

Junior Ali Morris led the way with 13 kills for the Catamount offensive attack and just missed a double-double with nine digs. Freshman Peri Subat posted the best offensive day of her career with seven kills on a .357 hitting percentage in the setback. She also tallied her best match on the block with three rejections. Sophomore Zoe Zudans added seven kills and three digs to the attack for WCU. Janourova also had a pair of service aces.

Catamount Career Record Watch:
Senior Sarah Janourova (2,079 assists, 980 digs, 95 aces): The Prague, Czech Republic native became the 11th player in program history to surpass the 2,000 helper mark last week against Chattanooga ... Janourova is the first Catamount to eclipse 2K career assists since Hannah Price (2017-20), who finished her career with 2,324 assists ... Janourova was fifth in the SoCon with 731 assists in 2023 to pace the Catamounts ... She also sits within striking distance of the 1,000 dig plateau, needing 20 to surpass that benchmark ... Janourova also needs just five service aces to eclipse 100 for her career as she looks to become the 16th WCU student-athlete to reach that mark – chasing that benchmark along with classmate Bailey Hartsough.

Senior Bailey Hartsough (1,046 kills, 1,004 digs, 99 aces): Hartsough became the 16th Catamount in program history to surpass 1,000 career kills with her 18 kills in the Catamounts' five-set win over The Citadel ... She is the most recent WCU student-athlete eclipse 1K kills since Merry Gebel (2018-22) who finished in the No. 2 spot in career kills with 1,693 ... A product of LaGrange, Ind., Hartsough became the 13th player in program history to reach 1,000 digs while also eclipsing 1,000 kills doing that in last week's match at Chattanooga ... Hartsough needs just one service aces to eclipse 100 for her career looking to become the 16th student-athlete in Catamount volleyball history to reach that mark – chasing that benchmark along with classmate Janourova.

ETSU (16-10, 8-6 SoCon in 2024) – RPI 131 in 2024
ETSU opens the final week for the Catamounts on Thursday with a matchup from Cullowhee as the Bucs enter after winning in five sets over Wofford. ETSU has taken two of the past three meetings with the Catamounts including a 3-0 win last month. Western Carolina will look to buck the recent trend that has seen ETSU win five of the past six meetings with WCU grabbing three of the past five wins head-to-head in Cullowhee.

ETSU sits with a 16-10 record overall and an 8-6 mark in SoCon play as the Bucs have won six of their past eight matches including the most recent on-court action against Wofford. The Bucs had a strong nonconference totaling an 8-4 record which included a Power Four conference win over West Virginia that started a four-match win streak to close out pre-SoCon play. ETSU went 6-23 during the 2023 campaign and held a 5-11 league mark before falling to top-seed The Citadel in the SoCon quarterfinals.

Senior Amanda Lowe leads the Bucs on the offensive side of the court totaling a team-high 263 kills including 11 matches in double figures. Junior Brianna Cantrell has eclipsed 100 kills with Cantrell at 173 totaling eight double-digit kill performances and three double-doubles. Junior Whitley Rammel has 166 kills followed by graduate student Jenna Forster with 160 kills.

Graduate student Reese Rhodes sits among the top in the assist column in the conference with 898 helpers coming in fourth in the league and she's also second in the SoCon with a team-high 39 service aces. Rhodes has garnered SoCon Setter of the Week honors earlier this season. On the defensive end, sophomore Melanie Morris leads  ETSU with 382 digs followed by Cantrell at 209 and Rhodes at 206. Senior Abbey Thomas has received a SoCon Defensive Player of the Week award as she sits first in the SoCon with 106 blocks as junior Whitley Rammel ranks fifth with 85 rejections.

The Bucs were tabbed sixth in the SoCon Preseason Poll, one of five schools that received at least one first-place vote and one of six schools overall to be tabbed for first-place honors within the league as they are led by Lindsay Devine who's in her 17th season in Johnson City beginning her second stint with the Bucs this season after 16 years that began in the 2003 season. Right side Jenna Forster was selected to the league's eight-player all-conference team.

Chattanooga (16-13, 6-8 SoCon in 2024) – RPI 242 in 2024
Western Carolina closes out its 2024 regular season slate on Friday evening with a visit from Chattanooga. WCU has had success with the Mocs in recent history winning 10 of the past 13 matches. The Catamounts have a solid 29-13 record all-time against Chattanooga from matches contested in Cullowhee.

Chattanooga begins the week with a 16-8 record after defeating Furman in a make-up match on Tuesday night and will close out the regular season with a matchup on Saturday against ETSU. The Mocs are 6-8 in SoCon play but have dropped three of their past five league matches. After falling in their opening match, UTC rattled off a six-match win streak to jumpstart its 2024 season. Chattanooga totaled a 19-14 record in 2023, 6-10 in league play, and fell in the second round of the SoCon tournament to eventual champion Wofford.

Senior Chard'e Vanzandt leads the Mocs with 340 kills to rank third in the SoCon, posting a season-high 27 kills against The Citadel earlier this season with 21 matches of 10+ kills for the Mocs. Junior Sydney Jackwin ranks fourth in the SoCon with 322 kills, posting 20 matches in double-digits. Sophomore Breanah Rives sits with 202 kills followed by freshman Kynli KIrkendoll with 191 kills as UTC has led the SoCon with 1433 kills thus far.

A three-time SoCon Setter of the Week, senior Elaine Redman begins the weekend ranked third nationally in assists with 1,116 helpers tallying 12 matches with 40 or more assists. Redman is also second in the league averaging 10.05 assists per set. On the defensive side of the court, senior Paige Gallentine ranks fifth nationally in digs with 560 and is second in the league with 5.05 digs per set. Gallentine also leads the squad with 32 service aces good enough for tied for sixth best in the league. Kirkendoll leads the Mocs with 88 blocks.

The Mocs were tabbed seventh in the SoCon Preseason Poll as they are led by third-year head coach and Director of Volleyball Julie Torbett, who spent 17 seasons at mountain-rival UNC Asheville. Gallentine was tabbed as the league's top libero on the 2024 Preseason All-Conference Team.

Up Next for the Catamounts:
Following Friday's action from Cullowhee, the Catamounts turn their attention to the 2024 Southern Conference Tournament hosted by Wofford beginning on Thur., Nov. 21st with the championship set for Sun., Nov. 24th. Seedings and matchups will be announced following the conclusion of play on Saturday for SoCon volleyball. All matches during the tournament will be shown on ESPN+ (paid subscription required), and live stats will be available for both matches on CatamountSports.com.

Keep track of everything related to Catamount volleyball and WCU Athletics through its social media outlets on Facebook (fb.com/catamountsports), Instagram (@wcu_catamounts, @catamountvb), and Twitter (@catamounts, @catamountvb).